OCR Text

Lethbridge Herald, The (Newspaper) - May 4, 1972, Lethbridge, Alberta
Ihur.day, May 4, 197Z THE ISTHBRIDGE HERAID Arnold To Prospects for ialf-a-loaf people E WISDOM of accepting hall a loaf is proverbial in a situation in which "no bread" is the only allcrnative. Human beings normally sotlle for half, but what is my decision to be if I am offered less than even half of the full loaf that I be- lieve to be my due? The situation arises only if I am Ibe weaker party to the en- counter. If I am negotiating from equality or from superior strength, I am likely to be of- fered a whole loaf. If I am ac- tually offered less than half I cannot reject the meagre scrap without exposing myself to the certainty of suffering. Yet the penalty for accepting less than half a loaf is also serious. Prac- tically, I shall be renouncing all future possibilities of a fairer deal in exchange for a derisory "mess of and psychol- ogically I shall be so humili- ated that my spirit may be per- manently broken. In the present-day world there are. lo this world's shame, some unfortunate com- munities and classes so.weak and so callously disregarded by more powerful fellow human beings that they must dumbly accept whatever is meted out to thorn. The Australian.natives, the "Indians" in the United States, and the poorest of the poor in all countries, are in this tragic position. Since l'ie Second World War the problem presented by the offer of less than half a loaf has arisen for seven communi- ties which, like the Australian natives and the American "In- have been victimized by but which have not been so weak that they have been bound to accept the settlers' dictates. The commu- nities that have had to face the grim choice between accepling and rejecting less (ban half a loaf have been the Palestin- ians, the Algerians, the Filack Africans In Kenya, Thode- sia and South Africa, the Black ex-African citizens of the Uni- ted States, and the whito Roman Catholics in Northern Ireland. In Algeria and Kenya the vic- timized populations rejected less than half a loaf, and this decision has been justified by the evenutal results, though tho price paid by the former vic- tims for their eventual victory has been high. The Palestinians have made the Algerians' choice, and are paying for this, without yet be- ing able to see victory on their horizon. In the other four cases, the is- sue Is still in the balance. It is still uncertain what the vic- timized party's choice is going to he. and if the answer is a rejection, it is uncertain how the struggle will end. The Algerians' victory has been remarkable: for, although they were, like the S o u t h crn African blacks, in a strong nu- merical majority, they had a million European settlers t o contend with. The French set- tlers in Algeria were abont as numerous as the Protestant British settlers in Nor I h ern Ireland, and they were equally fanatical. Moreover, they were backed by the French profes- sional army, which did not shrink from resorting to meth- od1; of barbarism. Fortunately f o r the Al- gerians. Ihe French profession- al officers' barbarism revolted the French conscripts, and the conscripts' revolt was backed by President de Gaulle. De Gaulle's disposal of the profes- sional army and of the settlers was one of his most amazing, and most laudable, achieve- ments. Today. Algeria is free, and both the French Army and most of the French settlers have gone. In Kenya, the straggle has had a happier ending. Here Ihe seltlers were a numerically in- significant minority, and when they recognized that they must capitulate, some of them left, like the French settlers in Al- geria. Mut (hose who have cho- sen to slay have been given tol- erable conditions by Mr. Ken- yatta, who has scon that their c o n t i n u i n g presence is a valuable economic asset for his country. In the United States, the black community is split. Some of its members consider that they have been given a fair enoug half-loaf to ensure that they will succeed in winning the whole loaf eventually. Oth- ers have come lo the bleak con- clusion that nothing but a re- sorl lo violence, in the face of fearful odds, offers any pros- pect of winning for them what they consider to be their full The Paleslinians' prospects are likewise bleak, but at least they have behind them the sup- port of Ihe ,-est of the Arab world, to balance world Zion- ism's support for Israel. In Southern Africa, Ihe pot is simmering. It looks as if the Africans will decide fo reject the offer of what is clearly far less than half a loaf. They can hardly bo unaware of the suf- fering to which they are expos- ing themselves if they decide to do baltle: but they have ona asset in common with the vic- torious Algerians and this is their overwhelming superiority in numbers, ''heir numbers give them confidence, no doubt in Rhodesia, wherfi there is a while minority of about among five mil- lion blacks. The Roman Catholics in Northern Ireland are in a mi- nority, but Ihe Protestant set- tlers are only about twice as numerous and there is one point in which the situation in Northern Ireland is unique. Here white settlors arc vic- timizing people of fhcir own A new kind of censorship By Murray Saylo, in The Sunday Times IRRATIONAL, absurd biue- pencilling by unseen cen- sors is, of course, nothing new. But the Pakistan side in (he war produced a unique break- through which I have never en- countered before: in I havo a nasty feel- ing that this will rapidly spread. The idea is .simple. Ordinary censors just cut stuff out; Hie Pakistani variant is to write in their own thoughts in a cor- iTipundent's dispatch. Thus, vine-re you wrote Sheikh Muji- bur Rahman, leader of the Aw- ami League, imprisoned in West Pakistan, "the traitor Mu- jib who is actually an Indian agent'1 would arrive at your puzzled office. A colleague from the Wash- ington Poi.1 was amazed to pet a telegram from his edi- tor: "Assume that your refer- ence to quoit Ihe .so called Bangladesh which is actually an Indian stunt unquote does not indicate that you are losing your objsctivity hut is a de- vice to avoid censorship." It was of course exactly the re- verse. How a reporter protects himself and his readers against this ploy I have not (repeat not) worked out. The situation is much more serious for television men, or electronic journalists as tfte ones who own three-piece suits call themselves; and, increas- ingly, viewers are coming to believe that what they see on television is reality, and not some tiling staged end niampu- lated as often as not by invis- ible controllers. T am not attacking f.hn integ- rity of my friends and col- leagues of the television teams, CANADA P. Lawson Travel Mnrquis Hotol Bldg. Phono 328-3000 AMA World Travel Service Phone 338-7921 903 3rd Avo. S. Art Williams Travel Conlrit Village Mall Phone 328-3201 with whom 1 now spend most of my working life; and I have tho support cf all of them 1 have talked shop with in ths past mon.hs lo indicate some- thing of Ihcir plight, strongly illustrated by the Indo-Pak war. At Ihe Intercontinental Hotel in Rawalpindi obliging Pakis- tan Army briefers set up shop in the ballroom, complete wilh floodlights, maps and pointers. Every night they were ready to allow television men tfl pho- tograph their absurd claims and clumsy evasions (the In- dians had a similar set-up in Most of the stuff put out at these briefings could be shown, if at all. only on a comedy pro- gram. Sample: Q: How can you have no rle.ir) even if one Muslim can beat five Hindus as you say? Briefer; In our Army, we be- lieve that no one ever dies in battle. He goes straight to Par- adise, so he is not dead. Q: Can he still shoot at tha Indians from Paradise? Briefer: scowls and on to tho next. The tlrreal lo TV men is al- ways the same: play ball or you get nothing, while your more compliant rival gets our guided lour but of course he need not explain that to his viewers and the official will step out of shot just before you say "roll it" and will slay out unill you say If I am giving any impres- sion that all TV people tamely give in to show business pres- sures I hasten to correct it. A clear case in point: the per- formance of the appalling "Bri- gadier" Siddiqui 25, who achiev- ed world fame by, publicly bay- oneting prisoners at a meeting in Dacca soon after its libera- tion by the whole performance, black as Ihe crimes of the vic- tims msy well have been. Rich- ard Lindlcy and his crew from ITN and our own brave girl photographer Penny Tweedia fresh from an Indian j a i J which she shared with Phil Ja- coosan) were present at this gruesome scene. "I am not going lo pholo- graph said Lindlcy, "be- cause I think he may be doing it for our benefit and I am giv- ing him no encourage m o n t whatever." Penny agreed and they left, an entirely commend- able decision. Siddiqui went on with his bayoneting and anoth- er photographer followed his in- stincts and kept on shooting but the geslure may well have saved al least one man from this barbaric end. IJndley's decision points the 'wsy, in my view, for some re- thinking we are all going to have U> do about our trade. Is there, for instance, any such thing as a reporter who simply watches like a disembodied eyo without himself affecting whal he reports? In the old days, a mob of rejxn'tcrs wilh cameras clicking and flash bulbs sear- ing people's eyebrows was im- probable enough as an invisible witness. With a typical televi- sion crowd at work, with lamps and clapper boards no one would any longer doubt that this is at least in part show business, wilh a powerful ef- fect on the audience. When massacres are staged, and hostages coached for the media. Ihe convention that our presence dors not make some of Iliese happen is gel- ling impossible to swallow. II must not lie thought that of us imolvctl in Ihe Indo Pak affair pul up meekly wilh tho ineossanl harrassment of reporters, restrictions and cen- sorship and plain refusal lo let us get on with our job. Many of tho Pnk officers and briefers 1 had blazing rows with, for instance, had a quick answer: "Hut. British television accepts (vnsorsliip in Ulster. Thai's your war, IJiis i.'; ours." race, and they have been doing this for more than three cen- turies. The altitude of the Protestant settlers in Ulster towards the Catholics is like the Spartans' attitude towards the Helots. Like the Spartans, the Ulster Protestants have not been con- tent simply to oppress their lo- cal fellow Europeans; they have nibbed the salt of hu- miliation into the wounds in- flicted by injustice. We know what eventually happened in Sparta's miniature empire. Ttw fate of Ulster lies today en tha knees of the gods. We cannot yet foresee the Ulster Cath- olics' final answer to the ques- tion raised for them by Brit- ain's suspension of the Slor- mont government. They may or may no! see in this half a loaf which it would be wise for them to accept. (Written for Tho Herald ami The Observer, London) Appreciation for both ivorlds By I-eo Fox, in Kainal News T BELIEVE in the succession and pro- gression of the life-style of the Indian, I have a great respect for Ihe traditional Indian style. For example, I get a great Ihrill and enjoyment when I participate in a pow-wow. Also, I cannot help but leel elated and proud to see old and young peo- ple participate in any dance or ritual tak- ing place. It is at these times that I wish my upbringing had included more stress on Indian life, rather than learning English, history, mathematics and all the other veins of white man culture which lead to the main artery of existence in present day society. Consequently, I find myself in a dilemma. In a stage of puzzlement, of not knowing exactly which route I must follow. I be- lieve in the powers of men such as Small Boy and his followers, yet, I also behold the genius of Edison and Pasteur. I be- lieve in a system of work and thus re- ward, yet I also believe in one man looking out for the well-being of his fellow men. I enjoy the books of Harold Robbins although literary critics call this trash, and I have read Shakespeare and Dickens and the Brontes, and found these easy to un- derstand only after I had acquired a rea- sonably sound English vocabulary. I can see beauty in the sleekness of a GM or a Ford product (so many underesti- mate this in the selling of a car) yet, I appreciate Ihe geometric and straight-lined design of the Blackfoot-speaking peoples, and had behoved at one time that the fore- runners of my race had a firm knowledge of geometry and trigonometry as they evolved their designs on triangles, squares and diagonals. (This was in the period of my life when I was struggling but never succeeded in memorizing or understanding the theorum or formulas of this science, or is it I drink the now traditional drink of In- dians lea and I have enjoyed the false-heaven of the finest scotch or the Russian vodka, or the non-telling taste of gin. Even the fattening and quenting delights of beer. I used to feast on the crushed deer meat mixed with Sas- katoon berries of my grandmother Anne, and still enjoy the raw version of beef kid- ney and the occasional (when lucky enough) ississtsisslan or the guts of some poor dead cow or steer. A doctor-son friend of mine almost had a fit once when I demonstrated my raw-meat eating Wow! I figured that would turn on the whole campus! 1 figured it was just as good as a good high on grass or hash, and better than the weird exaggerated world of orange-sunshine or mesc. F T also dig 12 ounce New York cuts cr< "i oozing perfection over charcoal, 1 by fine French dinner wine. I have been to the Crou Fair and wish- ed it -was here in Standoff, because it is such a fine demonstration of Indian pride, and because the weather is so hot there in August (and I don't have air-conditioning in my Then I hear the music of Hair and Charley Pride, and Jesus Christ Super- star and Buffy Ste. Marie and I find I'm addicted to all kinds of music. I, maybe, just maybe, am a very con- fused person. But I consider myself very So what of discrimiivalion. I have felt it from both Indians and non-Indians. So what! I can't speak English as great as a blue-eyed, blonde-haired person, yet I can communicate in that language. But'that biue- eyed, blonde-haired person cannot under- stand me when I say a simple "a" or So maybe, dear readers, if you are brown like me, you don't have it as rough as you might believe, or, if you are white you are lucky, but no more so than others. A needle for the doctors The Wall Street Journal either mankind or the doctors themselves to have their bland self-assurance upset now and then. Even before Ping-Pong dip- lomacy, it bothered us to find one doctor pushing and another deploring, say, natural childbirth, each with the same aura of in- controvertible scientific and personal au- thority. Except that they carry if. off belter, for thai matter, the doctors probably aren't Ihe worst offenders. After all, they do know quite a bit. One of the spectacles of tha last decade or so has teen watching reality deal successive comeuppances to succes- sive bands of self-assured economists, who know a little but not nearly as much as they lead their political friends to believe. Then there are the rest of the social scien- tists, who know almost nothing at all. bul invoke Ihe authority of science in advising us how to raise children, cure poverty and move mankind beyond freedom and dignity. None of these claims should be dismissed entirely, for even in the social sciences there are modest practilioners making modesl but useful gains. In our age, though, the prevailing mistake seems instead to be accepting too uncritically whatever is claimed in the name of science, and it's nice to be reminded thai nol even doctors know as much as they think they do. perversity in us always delights at the sight of some of our best-edu- cated experts eating a bit of crow, as the medical profession now seems to ba doing with regard to acupuncture. West- ern doctors have perforce long dismissed it as superstitious quackery, but now find themselves launching hot research projects to discover if it can't after all be used as an anesthetic. If I here was one thing all doctors ab- solutely knew six months ago, it was that the ancient practice of treating illness by sticking needles inlo people was utterly worthless. Then came the demonstrations of its use as an anesthetic in Peking a few months ago, and now one doctor who witnessed it in China reports, "It seems like even' single anesthesiologist in the U.S. is trying to get there." We shouldn't pick on the poor doctors, we know, when their knowledge has served us so splendidly. Still less do we have the slightest intention of endorsing acupunc- ture for anything, let alone for all the things superstition has claimed for it. If there is one thing we absolutely know, it is that no one's going to stick any needles into us unlil it's OK with the good old fami- ly physician. Even so, we can't believe It's bad for JIM FISHBOURNE Two cent refund not enough TF I had to guess, I'd say he was about ten. Maybe nine. I first saw him non- chalantly riding Us bicycle down our lane, one hand steering, the other idly swinging a newly emptied pop bottle. As he ap- proached where a neighbor and I were leaning on our gardening tools, passing the time of day, I was startled to see him swing the bottle as high as his arm would reach, and then smash it to Ihe pave- ment, splashing glass all across the lane. both yelled, I think, and he turned our way, a sort of "Well, Mac what is it you expression on his face; he didn't really stop, just slowed the bike to the point, at which he could barely balance, lie simply looked blank when one or Ihe other of us demanded "What did you do that but when I told him to get a broom and clean up Ihe broken glass, and that in a pretty sharp tone, I got a hit of a reaclion; he grinned slowly and told me where to go. Politely adding "misler." Hather takes you aback, you know. My neighbor swallowed a couple of times, and tried another tack, asking his name and where he lived. Thai really got n response, in the form of an obscenely-phrased direc- tive much more offensive than being told lo go lo hell. The youngster then rode off, not oven hurrying, evidently quite sure there was nothing wo could do about il. And ho was riglil. Oh yes, 1 can hear you saying whal you would do about il, if such a Ihing were In happen in your lane. Oh? And just what would you have done? Hit him? Groat idoa. and jusl what 1 fell like doing. Bui belling other people's kids can run lo and costs In court, which you might be able to afford a lot better than having peo- ple remember, a few years from now, that you were the chap who was in trouble for abusing children, or "something like that." Or perhaps you would have grabbed him and held him v.'liile your neighbor or your wife telephoned the police? Well, that would be somewhat better, though you might not always strike a time when the police had nothing else to deal wilh than a complaint that "some kid jusl broke a botlle in our lane." And manhandling a child, even while wailing for the police to arrive, doesn't get you any medals. Either idea would work all righl, I sup- pose, if you happened to be lucky enough lo get away with il. Belting the kid would ease your feelings, ant! perhaps leach him not to break bottles in ycur part of the lane at least when you arc watching. The price could be high, though, if you are charged. Gelling the police in on the ac! Is more likely lo effect a change hi behavior, not only in Ihe particular child hut also on Ihe parl of his buddies. There's even a chance that the change might be for the belter; though I'd say that would be unlikely. Bud in rolurn, you greatly increase the chances of lining charged wilh assault; the kid is almost certain lo complain, and hi- par- ents are very apt lo, as a result of the. po- lice calling on Ihem. "Oh, I hear you say, "there's anoth- er, far better answer; with sweet reason, you explain lo Ihe child all about broken glass and automobile lircs and all thai." The answer lo I ha! one is easy: "Where have you been living
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